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LA prosecutor and radio show host: Steve Wagstaffe tried to retaliate against me for writing a piece that was critical of Ayres prosecutor

Original post made
by Lurker, another community,
on Sep 5, 2013

On September 2, 2013, the Larry Elder radio show out of KABC in Los Angeles did a segment about the problematic prosecutor, Melissa Mckowan in the Ayres case.

The guest hosts for the Labor Day show were Leo Terrell and Robin Sax. Journalist Victoria Balfour, who brought the Ayres case to the San Mateo PD, was a guest on the show. You can hear the 10 minute segment here:

Robin Sax , one of the hosts, is a former prosecutor in Los Angeles and currently works as a legal analyst for the Today Show.

Sax actually has some prior experience with the Ayres case, as she wrote an article in the Huffington Post in 2009 about Balfour being barred from access to the courtroom in the first Ayres criminal trial.

Sax recounted on this week's radio show about how bizarrely, San Mateo DA Steve Wagstaffe tried to retaliate against her for writing the opinion piece by calling up her then- boss, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley to try to get her disciplined for speaking out about the matter.

Sax was not disciplined for her opinion piece.

Sax talks about how odd it was that Wagstaffe would try to retaliate against her.

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Posted by Lurker
a resident of another community
on Sep 5, 2013 at 7:22 am

The question is: will Wagstaffe call up Robin Sax's boss at KABC in Los Angeles and try to get her into trouble for talking about how he tried to retaliate against her?

Posted by Retaliation
a resident of another community
on Sep 5, 2013 at 7:43 am

Wagstaffe has long tried to retaliate against anyone who has complained about any form of mistreatment.

Rumor is some deep pockets will be financing a real candidate to run against him this time.

There's also another bar complaint being investigated against Wagstaffe and McKowan now for violating prior orders of discipline. Expect much more serious discipline to get meted out this time, including against Wagstaffe directly.

Pretty mild stuff. Truly bizarre that Wagstaffe would go to such great lengths to try to punish Sax for this.

Also given that a year earlier, Wagstaffe had permitted one of his prosecutors, Morris Maya, to write a very sharply critical opinion piece for the San Mateo Daily Journal about Senator Leland Yee's domestic violence bill, it seems hypocritical and thin-skinned of Wagstaffe to retaliate against Sax.

Posted by Lurker
a resident of another community
on Sep 6, 2013 at 2:01 pm

In June 2009, a San Mateo resident sent San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe a copy of Robin Sax's Huffington Post story about Mckowan barring Balfour from the courtroom and then told him she wouldn't be voting for him in the next election.

Here's a small portion of Wagstaffe's very lengthy and VERY defensive, ill-advised response to the San Mateo citizen about Robin Sax from June 27, 2009:

"Finally, I have read the words written by Los Angeles prosecutor Robin Sax. I do not know and have not heard of this attorney before, but it is my view she has a very basic misunderstanding of the legal and ethical boundaries of the role of a prosecutor in court. I have been a prosecutor for 32 years and a member of the Board of Directors of the California District Attorney's Association; District Attorney James Fox has been a prosecutor for 39 years and the President of both the California District Attorney's Association and the National District Attorney's Association. We are both amazed at the statements of Ms. Sax. Beyond that, I will not speak ill of her."

Wagstaffe says he won't speak ill of Sax and then proceeds to trash her. What a misogynist. And for the record, while he says he's never heard of Sax, a lot more people have heard of Sax around the country than they've heard of Wagstaffe. Sax is a legal analyst on the Today Show. Is Wagstaffe?

Posted by Menlo Voter
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Sep 6, 2013 at 7:54 pm

Wagstaffe is just another in a long line of corrupt San Mateo county politicians. We can only hope that someone legitimate will run against him and beat him in the next election. I'm not holding my breath.

Posted by Lurker
a resident of another community
on Sep 8, 2013 at 6:59 am

Thanks for your suggestions, Menlo Observer and Fan of ACLU, concerning possible candidates to run against Steve Wagstaffe. Anyone else have any thoughts on other candidates? Whoever runs against Wagstaffe needs to have deep pockets and be endorsed by current San Mateo elected officials.

Concerning Robin Sax's KABC show on Labor Day about the problematic prosecutor in Steve Wagstaffe's office: back on June 4/2013, at a San Mateo Supervisors' meeting, Atherton resident Jon Buckheit spoke on this same topic and asked the Supervisors to take action:

Posted by darflaim
a resident of another community
on Dec 20, 2013 at 2:10 pmdarflaim is a registered user.

Wagstaffe and McGowan care nothing about the elderly or disabled. They refused to prosecute a paid caregiver who stole more than $200K from a brain injured quadriplegic when we discovered financial abuse after he died. We have bank records proving on line transfers to the paid caregivers bank accounts! I will donate and mobilize the elderly and disabled for anyone willing to run against him! California has elder abuse laws but and Wagstaffe refuses to use them! Please let me know when someone stands up to run against him.

Posted by Holly L.
a resident of Menlo Park: Linfield Oaks
on Mar 10, 2014 at 7:16 amHolly L. is a registered user.

Darflaim:

The person who runs the Ayres blog would be interested in hearing more about this case and your complaint. He just wrote a post urging someone with integrity to run against Wagstaffe. Deep Sounding's contact info is on the website.